Tuesday, 4 August 2015

What we are reading: 2 years old edition

Out of all the activities Little One enjoys doing, I'd still say reading books is right there at the top of the list. If we are going out anywhere for the day or to a restaurant, we always make sure we take a couple of small books in his bag with us as they provide guaranteed entertainment for him and every evening, we read at least 3 books together. We keep a collection upstairs in his room and a little pile downstairs too. He is just mad keen on books!

We still love going on our little outing to our local library together. We tend to go on Wednesdays every 2 to 3 weeks. It's really become an engrained part of our little routine we have. Unless he's been given a book as a present, we tend to get a lot of our books from the library as it means we can switch them up every couple of weeks for variety.

When we go, it's always the same friendly man behind the desk and each week, without fail, it's always us and a lady with her granddaughter who is the same age as Little One, and who always seem to be in the library when we are there. They sit and colour in pictures together or sit on the floor flicking through colourful board books, while her grandma her I sit and chat about which books we think they'll both enjoy. We often do a little swap too and recommend books which our little ones have particularly enjoyed.

I haven't shared what we have been reading for a while, and there have been so many wonderful books we have read since I last did a reading post, but here are a few books which LO has been asking to read constantly since he turned 2.

Postman Bear and Fox's Socks are both by the fabulous Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. They're from the series of books 'Tales from Acorn Wood' and are perfect for toddlers, liftable flaps which help tell the story, and simple rhyming words which they can join in with or even memorise. These have been some of LO's favourite books recently, and he has also read Hide and Seek Pig from the same series. Each book tells a lovely little story and the pictures are gorgeous.

LO is a massive fan of Fireman Sam, and I can't see this phase ending for a while yet. He also loves Thomas and Friends so these sound button books he got for his birthday have proved very popular. The pictures are bold, they're not too wordy (I avoid overly wordy books for him at this stage) and the pictures show which sound button to press to help tell the story in an interactive way. We keep these downstairs or for when we are going out rather than for bedtime otherwise he wants to take them into his cot and push fire engine sounds all night...

Sharing a Shell by Julia Donaldson is a lovely story about a crab with no shell to live in. He finds an empty shell which he shares with an anemone and a bristleworm. Between them, they look after each other, until one day they fall out and go their separate ways. Crab goes to live in a paper cup and the anemone lives on a plastic ice cream tub washed up from the sea. A storm ruins their new homes, so they go off to find a new shell. They both stumble upon a whelk shell, when who should pop out from it but their old friend bristle worm. And they live happily ever after in their new little home. The story is quite a long one for a 2 year old, but the bright pictures make it very engaging. A perfect little read for bedtime.

Little One loves the Peppa Pig range of story books, and we still have a few left which we haven't yet read. He received Peppa Pig and the Fire Engine from one of his lovely friends just before his birthday and we have been reading it non-stop since. He is able to remember parts of the story and will join in with key words. A super little read for toddlers.

So they are the books we have been loving recently. What do your little ones enjoy reading? If you have any recommendations, leave them in the comments section and we will try and read them.